


How Holmes and Watson react to each other’s “deaths”

by Sherloki1854



Series: Johnlock in the original canon [21]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: M/M, Meta, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Freeform, Subtext, TJLC | The Johnlock Conspiracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 02:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4811300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sherloki1854/pseuds/Sherloki1854
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of course Holmes (and thus Watson) has a dangerous job. That means that Holmes is often attacked and going to die – and Watson obviously does not go unscathed either. (Which might have something to do with the fact that Watson is the responsible one in their relationship and is always armed.) Let us see how they react to the other's apparent death:</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Holmes and Watson react to each other’s “deaths”

The Final Problem, 1891

_It was the sight of that Alpine-stock which turned me cold and sick. He had not gone to Rosenlaui, then. He had remained on that three-foot path, with sheer wall on one side and sheer drop on the other, until his enemy had overtaken him. The young Swiss had gone too. He had probably been in the pay of Moriarty, and had left the two men together. And then what had happened? Who was to tell us what had happened then?_

_I stood for a minute or two to collect myself, for **I was dazed with the horror of the thing**. Then I began to think of Holmes’s own methods and to try to practise them in reading this tragedy. It was, alas, only too easy to do. [...]_

_I shouted; but only the same half-human cry of the fall was borne back to my ears._

 

The Illustrious Client

_Their blow fell--or his blow rather, for never could I believe that the lady was privy to it. **I think I could show you the very paving-stone upon which I stood when my eyes fell upon the placard, and a pang of horror passed through my very soul**. It was between the Grand Hotel and Charing Cross Station, where a one-legged news-vender displayed his evening papers. The date was just two days after the last conversation. There, black upon yellow, was the terrible news-sheet:_

_MURDEROUS ATTACK UPON SHERLOCK HOLMES_

_I think I stood stunned for some moments. Then **I have a confused recollection** of snatching at a paper, of the remonstrance of the man, whom I had not paid, and, finally, of standing in the doorway of a chemist’s shop while I turned up the fateful paragraph. [...] _

_I need not say that my eyes had hardly glanced over the paragraph before I had sprung into a hansom and was on my way to Baker Street._

Watson was so horrified that he remembers every single detail of the scene – and Watson is supposed to be the one who “sees, but does not observe”. This is a show of how terrified he. Our Victorian gentleman then proceeds to behave in the most un-Victorian and un-gentelmanly was possible to get to Holmes as soon as possible. But that is not even important. That first paragraph is incredibly meaningful.

 

The Devil’s Foot, 1897

_At the same moment, in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had a glimpse of Holmes’s face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror--the very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead._ _**It was that vision which gave me an instant of sanity and of strength** _ _. I dashed from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together we lurched through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown ourselves down upon the grass plot and were lying side by side, conscious only of the glorious sunshine [...]_

I should just highlight the whole paragraph. In short: Holmes and Watson are going to die from a drug that acts upon your fears. Watson is going to die soon, and he knows it, but what brings him back and gives him strength is Holmes dying. He then finds the strength to save Holmes without any problem and the scene ends with the Hollywood-worthy romantic scene of them “lying side by side” in the “glorious sunshine”. Is that not exactly how every single scene where the main character realises that his love interest is not dead ends?

 

The Three Garridebs, 1902

_In an instant he had whisked out a revolver from his breast and had fired two shots. I felt a sudden hot sear as if a red-hot iron had been pressed to my thigh. **There was a crash as Holmes’s pistol came down on the man’s head**. I had a vision of him sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons. Then my friend’s wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair._

“ _ **You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!”**_

_It was worth a wound--it was worth many wounds--to know **the depth of loyalty and love** which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain._

Just imagine Holmes smashing his gun on Killer Evans's head, and turning around to see what happened to Watson even while he was fighting. Remember that Holmes did not know what exactly happened to Watson during this scene, and this is what prompts the “big reveal” (well, big for everyone who had not paid much attention – or any, actually, they are so painfully obvious): our “automaton” cries and invokes God, which is not something Holmes does (literally the only other time he does that is when he explains how he managed to escape at Reichenbach). He is  **devastated** . And it is beautiful. 

 

 

**And afterwards each other's “resurrections”**

Of course they are never actually dead. They know that the other would not survive it. I mean, Watson began seeing Holmes's ghost (“you are not a ghost, anyway”)! 

 

The Dying Detective, 1890

_I nearly called out in my joy and my amazement._

Remember here that Watson is hiding, there is a murderer in the room and Holmes was simply pretending to be ill.

 

The Empty House, 1894

_When I turned again, Sherlock Holmes was standing smiling at me across my study table. I rose to my feet, stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then it appears that **I must have fainted for the first and the last time in my life**. Certainly a gray mist swirled before my eyes, and when it cleared I found my collar-ends undone and the tingling after-taste of brandy upon my lips. Holmes was bending over my chair, his flask in his hand._

Watson was wounded on the battlefield, endured sickness and terrible conditions in hospital in a war zone and **this** is the only time he ever fainted? At least that is what this sounds like... Also, just the fact that he faints. ;)

 

The Three Garridebs, 1902

“ _You are right,” he cried with an immense sigh of relief. “It is quite superficial.” His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. “By the Lord, it is as well for you. **If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive**. [...]”_

The scene – again. I will repeat (for the umpteenth time) that Holmes is basically saying that he would kill Watson's murderer in revenge – cheerfully and naturally.

 


End file.
